Peacock Dancing @ Bandipur

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Shot this on Good Friday day (2nd April'10) at Bandipur, it was cloudy morning with low light.

Camera Model Canon EOS 40D, 100-400mm
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/200
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
ISO 800
Focal length 400mm
Full Frame & Hand held

Some info on this behavior in Peacock :

1. During the breeding season, peacocks choose special places to perform their courtship dance and they tend to return to the same location year after year. Other males may be doing the same thing close by and peahens will window-shop—the peacock with the best display wins.
2. When a peahen comes close enough, the peacock turns his back and brings his train erect, displaying the underlying tail feathers and his dark wings, which he flutters rapidly, From this angle, the brilliant colors of the display feathers can’t be seen—the bird is predominantly grey and brown. The peacock steps from side to side and sometimes moves forward or backward a few steps.
3. When the peahen comes closer still, the peacock backs up towards her, and when she avoids him, he turns, revealing all his color and holding his wings still. He then drops the great fan down on top of the female. It quivers, making a rustling sound.
4. The peahen may mate with the peacock, or she may simply walk away or stand still, whereupon the male starts over, turning his back again and resuming the rapid fluttering of his wings. The peacock can hold his fan of display feathers up for a very long time.
5. For reasons that are not well understood, peahens tend to mate with peacocks with the most eye-spots.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice information. Unlike humans, every animal wants to mate with the best so that the offspring has the best genes to be successful in future. That is the process of natural selection. The females choose their mate carefully. So in elephants, a mature bull gets precedent over immatures. In birds, the indicator of health of an individual is often its plumage length, colour etc.

The light seems to be low. Else, f8 or narrow aperture would have been good. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Mrudul Godbole]

The colours are nice. A bit more space on top to include the tips of the feathers would have been good. Thanks for sharing the interesting behaviour, it seems in animals it is survival of the fittest and the best .

[Bibhav Behera]

Thanks for the info Praveen. I wish you have reduced the space at the bottom and included more at the top to fit in the full arch of the spread of the tail. Thanks for sharing.

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Thank you all for the comments, I agree about the space at top. Unfortunately we sighted this all of a sudden and had no time.